“Oh? I see someone has been talking to you,” he said, knowing just who that someone might be.
“I am not your true father but in the time that I have known you, I have come to think of you as my daughter.” Aku’s expression brightened and he beamed at her with a big smile full of white teeth. “Yes, you are a daughter to be proud of.”
Somehow Azura felt her heart soar as she heard those words from Aku, as if it really did mean a lot to her, even if she couldn’t remember who he was or what was shared between them. It reminded her of something. Something that she hadn’t felt in a long time.
Happiness.
Even though she couldn’t understand why.
Perhaps a father figure was tons better than none.
“O-oh… I’m… really glad to hear that.” The young girl wiped her stray tears away, completely overcome with emotion. “It helps to hear that I… wasn’t a bad guy before this incident, heh.”
Seeing the tears in her eyes, Aku reached for the box of tissues beside Azura’s bed and placed them on her lap. Then he rolled his chair closer to place a hand on Azura’s back and gave her a comforting rub.
“What? A bad guy? You?” It surprised him to hear that she’d felt this way. “Noooo! I have always known you to be nothing but good.”
Though she did have a way of attracting evil. No one could deny that. And while his mind was on the subject, he thought of an important point. Without her memories of all the evil beings she had encountered, Azura was a sitting duck.
“But if you wanna see a bad guy, I’ll show you a bad guy. I’ll show you several!” Clicking his pen, he pulled a sheet of paper out from Azura’s medical file. Given she was called ‘Patient Name: Unknown’, there was very little in her file aside from blank forms. Aku turned the page over to its blank side and began to sketch some figures.
One was a man in a long dark coat. He wore a top hat and monocle and had a smile like a shark. The next figure was also a man in a long dark coat but had a head like a cracked skull, a sunken eye, a thin toothless grin and skeletal hands. The third figure was one he knew only from Azura’s drawings. It was a small triangle wearing a top hat and bow tie and had noodle arms and legs. Aku was careful not to draw the figure’s eyeball, as Azura had told him that was dangerous, so he simply drew an X where the eye should be.
“These are not guys you want to run into,” he warned, letting Azura have the drawings to study.
I still can’t believe they killed him off–it’s not fair, I cry T^T ༼ つ ಥ╭╮ಥ ༽つ How could you kill someone that cute? How could a character like that just end? Like, he really had to die didn’t he? I mean actually go through death (not that the gorgeous basart didn’t deserve it), when previously he was secure in his immortality (although technically he was just waiting for the ax to fall the whole time, knowing that Jack would eventually come after him; at least he had some hope at the start of Jack’s return in having established a position of power in the world and could take out the Samurai more easily.) I’m happy that Jack won, just sad that Aku had to lose in order for that to happen.
Imagine if Aku had known about his daughters when they were first born. Imagine if he’d had them in his life to focus his energy on rather than constantly worrying in fear about Jack. Imagine him actually coming to care about his daughters and raising them as his own and finally knowing love. He would have been unstoppable.
Uh-oh. Did doctors not speak to their patients this way? Should he rattle off some strange medical terminology to confuse her?
“I am a friend of yours. We have known each other for over a year. I am Aku. It is a pleasure to re-meet you, Azura,” he answered with a bow of his head.
“Aku…”
The way he spoke gave Azura her a fatherly impression. Despite her mind being in shambles, she was still a clever girl, and soon enough with some hard thinking the dots started to connect and she was baffled that she didn’t figure it out sooner. Only someone close would know of the whole story, and Flug mentioned that he was going to call him sooner to see her, it all made sense now.
“…Are you supposed to be my father?”
“Oh? I see someone has been talking to you,” he said, knowing just who that someone might be.
“I am not your true father but in the time that I have known you, I have come to think of you as my daughter.” Aku’s expression brightened and he beamed at her with a big smile full of white teeth. “Yes, you are a daughter to be proud of.”
“Because I have known you for longer than you realize,” he answered up front. “You are someone who has a way of wandering… into unusual situations and encountering unusual individuals. Not all of them are good. Sometimes your curiosity leads you into trouble. At least, that was the Azura I knew.”
He seemed almost mournful for a moment before moving on.
“In regards to Dr. Flug, he does indeed associate with evil. But I have come to realize that even bad people are capable of doing good things, just as good people are capable of doing bad things.” It was a strange reality and Aku was still getting used to it himself.
Wasn’t this man supposed to be her doctor? How could he knew things about her this much? Come again… he didn’t seem to be checking up on her as he usually would.
Azura leaned back to her bed and gave the man a skeptical look.
“Who are you?”
Uh-oh. Did doctors not speak to their patients this way? Should he rattle off some strange medical terminology to confuse her?
“I am a friend of yours. We have known each other for over a year. I am Aku. It is a pleasure to re-meet you, Azura,” he answered with a bow of his head.
“Aku, I need to have a real talk with you. About Azura of course.”
“Memory or not; relationships or not, she is valuable on many different levels. To the point that maybe even Heroes may come after her. I’m aware she has some powers, yet don’t know what they are. If she accidentally activates what ever these powers are, it might cause her even more worry or cause unwanted attention. I’m in agreeance she needs to rest and heal, but she needs a place afterwards.”
“She has to come to some sort of logic about you, me, Flug, everyone. And suddenly trying to help her without generic public logic, it will harm her. Hence why I’m planning a kidnapping. It’s a slow introduction of our world again basically. Dr. Flug will be with me on this as well to make sure she is well. We can’t have her be teleported off to your world since that will be a huge shock.”
“She will be treated as royalty, much like all captives I have on my ship, but it needs to be legit kidnapping. Being a ‘Captive’ on my ship means you get access to walk anywhere on the ship and basically do what ever. She will have it easy.”
“I do not like it,” came Aku’s terse response after listening to the full proposition. “However. I can see what you are trying to accomplish.”
“You must understand, Crow, that even if you should succeed in this kidnapping, you cannot keep her to any one place. Azura is not your typical human. She has the ability to traverse the dimensions but she possesses little control over this ability.”
The demon lord turned away with a soft rumble of frustration. As a creature who commanded total control of his world, he hated being in situations where he had none.
“I have not yet determined how best to explain this to her without causing undue stress. But she needs to be warned. In words she can understand.”
The Shogun of Sorrow 